Madeline Cadotte

Madeline Cadotte (c. 1760 or 1770- between 1852 to 1860) was an Ojibwe woman of the prominent clan ajijaak dodem.

She was the eldest daughter of chief Waubujejack. After her marriage to Michel Cadotte according to Ojibwe tradition, she went along with her husbands’ expeditions and used her lineage to help form vital partnerships with the indigenous peoples in the area. Around the start of the 19th century she and her husband would build a permeant home on Madeline Island, where she would become a powerful figure in the area.

Michel and Madeline would get married a second time under the customs of the Catholic Church, she would be baptized on the same day and be given her European name. Close to the end of her life she would be interviewed by her grandson William Whipple Warren when he was writing about the history of the Ojibwe.

Many scholars have regarded her as a prominent figure to the history of the Apostle Islands. Madeline island, among other places in Wisconsin, is named after her. She has been referenced many times in literature of Wisconsin. She is the ancestor to many prominent people in North America.

Not much is known about her early life before she married Michel Cadotte.^[1] Dr DuLong places her date birth around 1770^[2] while journalist Robert Silbernagel placed her date of birth 1760.^[3]She was born along St. Croix River.^[3][2]

She was a member of the Crane Clan (ajijaak dodem), which was usually responsible for creating chiefs in the Anishinaabe clan system.^[4] She was the oldest daughter of chief Waubujejack^[5] and a sister to Tagwagane.^[6] Mamongazeda is her great-great uncle.^[7] She is second cousin to White crow and White fish.^[8]

According to Nelson Hamilton Ross, Madeline met Michel when he was making his rounds near Chequamegon Bay.^[9] While according to Silbernagel, she probably met Michel Cadotte sometime in the early 1780s, after Michel left his father's home and ventured out with them probably meeting at Michel's first trading post on the Namekagon River.^[10]

Madeline and Michel got married according to Ojibwe tradition around 1786 on Namekagon River.^[2] Not much is known about how and when the wedding took place; there is no written records when this marriage was recognized by their ojibwe family. All of this is due to the Ojibwe tradition of documenting important events orally rather than writing it down. _{When Madeline was interviewed by her grandson William Warren, there is no mention of this marriage.^[11]}

According to Silbernagel, it’s likely that Michel offered a gift to Madeline’s father in order to win his approval.^[11]

By 1787, Michel and Equaysayway were living together on Chippewa River.^[10]

During that same year in the beginning there of the fur trapping season, Madeline Cadotte was at a camp and her husband was heading back to the camp. A chief from across the river grabbed his musket and tried to shoot her husband. It missed her husband and it nearly hit her.^[12]

During the late 1780s she joined her husband on expeditions to Chippewa River.^[13] Between 1792 to 1793, she and other Native American women would join Michel Cadotte and Jean Baptiste Cadotte Jr on their journey to Lake Itasca.^[13] Years later, Madeline recounted that she and these women were left at Fond Du Lac; their husbands were heading into a dangerous region and the men did not want to be burdened by women._^[14]

Around the start of the 19th century she and her husband established a trading post on and a new permanent family home on Madeline island.^[15] Around this time Madeline probably would spend most of her time with family and her 6 children at her new home.^[13]

Madeline would eventually become a powerful figure of the region.^[16] By 1806, Madeline's and Michel's business was steady.^[17]

At the family home she managed to impress people, when Thomas McKenney visited Madeline Island in 1826, he called her a:^[13]

a worthy, well-disposed woman

Madeline and Michel Cadotte would marry again in the Catholic tradition on July 26, 1830 at St. Anne's Church on Mackinac Island.^[18]

There were numerous reasons for why the couple decided to marry a second time decades after their first marriage. Powerful courts cases were changing how marriages between European men and Native American women were perceived by the law, treaties had a big impact on mixed race couples, and Protestant missionaries were arriving in the region.^[19]

The wedding was performed by Father Jean Dejean. The witnesses to the wedding include William McGulpin, Alexis Corbin, and Alexis Corbin Jr.^[18] Her children would also be present at the wedding. Madeline would get baptized on the same day right around the age of 60.^[2]

During this time they would gain a marriage license from the county clerk at Mackinac Island so their marriage would be recognized by the United States government.^[20]

Land on Madeline Island would eventually be deed to her and her husband.^[21] Her husband Michel Cadotte died in 1837 but Madeline would live longer.

She was alive when her grandson William Whipple Warren was interviewing her^[22] and Ojibwe elders about tribal history.^[23] Census records report that in 1850 she was living at La Pointe with her son Antoine Cadotte^[2] and recorded her age as 90.^[23]

She would die some time after the 1852 census and before the 1860 census.^[2]

It is believed that Madeline is buried somewhere on the Madeline island.^[24] According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, she is buried somewhere at La Pointe.^[15] According to Susan Lampert Smith, Madeline is buried at La Pointe Indian Cemetery.^[25]

She had the following children with Michel Cadotte:

• Michel Cadotte Jr^[26]
• Marguerite Cadotte^[27]
• Jean Baptiste Cadotte (1790)^[27]
• Augustin Cadotte^[28]
• Étienne Cadotte^[29]
• Julie Cadotte^[29]
• Mary Cadotte^[30]
• Antoine Cadotte^[31]
• Charlotte Cadotte^[31]
• Joseph Cadotte (1807)^[32]

Native American women were important to the North American fur trade, especially ones who married fur traders.^[33] Marriages between White men and Native American women almost always required the wife convert to Christianity.^[34]

Historian Brenda Child noted that Michel and Madeline did not marry in the à la façon du pays fashion instead marrying under Catholic tradition. Child speculates that Madline might have converted to Catholicism in order break away from the control of her father, but Child thinks this was a poor way to escape the patriarchy.^[34]

Madeline's Ojibwe lineage would benefit her and her husband in developing important partnerships with the natives in the area.^[35]

People in the Ojibwe tribe like many other Native American tribes went by multiple names over time and would be flexible when adopting Christian names and surnames.^[36]

Equaysayway was her Ojibwe name^[37] which means traveling woman.^[2] Ikwezewe is usually how her Ojibwe name is spelled in the double vowel system of the Ojibwe language.^[38] Other variations of her Ojibwe name include Kwesewen,^[39] Qugsuanay/Ikwesens which means little girl.

Her marriage record refer to her as Marie Magdeliene la Grue ou achichak, this has led some to think that achichak was a variation of her ojibwe name and La Grue was her surname. This is not the case, La Grue is french for the crane and achichak is the French priest's attempt to spell ajijaak. La Grue would also appear again in her baptism record.^[2]

The name Madeline is a corruption of her European name Magdelaine.^[40] She was given this name when she was baptized to Catholicism.^[41]

Bob Mackreth placed her on his list of women who played an important part in the history of the Apostle Islands.^[42]Author Dennis McCann states that the marriage of Michel Cadotte and Equaysayway brought romance to the narrative of Madeline Island.^[43] Madeline Island museum had an exhibit called Women of Madeline Island, the exhibit included notable women like Madeline Cadotte.^[44]

During the 1830s non-natives at La Pointe, Wisconsin decided to name numerous places after her. This included a school, hotel, and churches.^[45]

Madeline Island is named after her.^[46][40] At one point, the island was named after her husband. However, Madeline was so prominent at the trading post and the communities around the region that the island had its name changed to Madeleine Island.^[45] Around the time she was baptized, Madeline's father declared the island to be named after her.^[9][41][47]

The spelling of the island’s name change to Madeline when the Americans defeated the British.^[45] There were unsuccessful attempts to name the island Virginia island.^[9] The name Madeline Island became the preferred name by the late 19th century.^[40]

She is referenced in As Waters Gone By written by Cynthia Ruchti and^[48] Over Madeline Island by Jay Gilbertson.^[49]

She is a character in the novel Woman of the Green Glade: The Story of an Ojibway Woman on the Great Lakes Frontier.^[50] She is also a character in the novel Song for the Hunter,^[51] the author of this novel would appear on ABC News.^[52]

Two of her daughters Marie and Charlotte would go on to marry fur traders. Many her descendants would be prominent in the North West of the United States and these people would be proud of their lineage. In the 1850 census for La Pointe of the 485 residents, no fewer than 40 of the residents descended from her daughter Marie.^[53]

Madline's grandson William Warren would become a prominent scholar and government interpreter, Warren would have a daughter named after her Madeline Warren.^[54]

According to historian Brenda Child,^[16]

Madeleine Cadotte and her French-Ojibwe daughters, Charlotte and Marie Warren, lived most of their years as wives of fur traders. Though these daughters married Protestant New Englanders and had French ancestry, they communicated exclusively in the Ojibwe language of their mother and her doodem. These women expanded the Ojibwe idea of what kinds of work a woman could do. Men and women followed a gendered division of labor that served their society well, but it was not so rigid that women could not take on a unique role in their community, especially one that benefited the greater good, as being the wife of a fur trader did.

After Madeline’s death many of her descendants would become the early settlers of White Earth Indian Reservation.^[55] She would impact her descendants even in the 21st century she would impact: One of her descendants was inspired by her and made the sculpture Gateway to Madeline.^[56][57][58] Another descendant, Dr. Melissa Beard-Jacob said this about her:

Equaysayway is truly the matriarchal foundation for the Cadotte family legacy, and I am proud to be her fourth granddaughter.^[59]

• Silbernagel, Robert (May 13, 2020). The Cadottes: A Fur Trade Family on Lake Superior. Wisconsin Historical Society. ISBN 9780870209413.
• Warren, William Whipple (1885). History of the Ojibways, Based Upon Traditions and Oral Statements. Minnesota Historical Society.
• O'Meara, Walter (1968). Daughters of the Country:The Women of the Fur Traders and Mountain Men. Harcourt. Archived from the original on September 8, 2010.
• DuLong, John P. (2020), Jean-Baptiste Cadotte's First Family: Genealogical Summary, University of Saskatchewan
• DuLong, John P. (2015), Jean-Baptiste Cadotte's Second Family: Genealogical Summary, University of Saskatchewan
• Tobola, Thomas (1974). "Cadotte Family Stories". Cadott Printing.
• Child, Brenda (2012). Holding Our World Together:Ojibwe Women and the Survival of Community. Viking. ISBN 9780670023240.
• Ross, Hamilton Nelson (2000). La Pointe:Village Outpost on Madeline Island. Wisconsin Historical Society. ISBN 9780870203206. Archived from the original on May 28, 2019.
• Busch, Jane Celia (2008). People and Places:A Human History of the Apostle Islands : Historic Resource Study of Apostle Islands National Lakeshore (PDF). Archived from the original on May 4, 2008.
• Loew, Patty (June 30, 2013). Indian Nations of Wisconsin: Histories of Endurance and Renewal (2 ed.). Wisconsin Historical Society. ISBN 9780870205941.

• Madeline Cadotte at Find a grave